My 2015 Running Resolutions

In lieu of a New Year’s resolution post, like many others, I decided to write up some of my running goals. Apparently the social pressure of posting goals helps reach them, so hopefully I have a good chance of accomplishing these. I felt that I also had a better chance of accomplishing these goals than the more generic resolutions. So here we go!

• Increase Speed - Now that I have a subscription to Runner’s World, thanks Grandma, I have come to understand the importance of speed work and repeats. I want to implement these on my shorter runs and start improving speed. I have been cutting down on time for the half marathons I did in the second half of the year, with a PR of 1:54 at the Runner’s World half, but want to bring this down further. I’m hoping to get somewhere in the 1:30s by the end of the year. 
• More Marathons - I completed the incredible event of my first Marathon ever in NYC in 2014.Now that I have one under my belt, I want to challenge myself with some smaller ones with a bit less event adrenaline. I did ok in the marathon, but was below my training pace. I think the main reasons were a bit too long tappering, a four hour wait in the cold where my muscles cramped, and inadequate fueling during the race. I also started walking while drinking water at the stops, which I didn’t train doing at all which may have caused some issues. I want to learn from these and perform better, hopefully in a closer to 4:00 or even under. I plan on doing the Belfast marathon in May, and the Philly one in Nov, giving plenty of time between for recovery and training, and a bunch of halfs.
• Core work - I got into running because I hated doing other exercise so much. We sort of made it through P90x and did Insanity for a while, but the length of them, how much they killed me, the repetition, and especially the slave-like devotion needed to do it every single day were too much. I will try to get into better rhythm with training and use the recovery days for non-running work or doing a short amount on the short run days. I’m about to get familiar again with Shaun T and Tony H.
• More runs with friends - Some of the best times running last year were sharing pre-race jitters and post race pain with friends. I’m not a good social runner, but even spending the time leading up to and after makes a race go by faster. It also helps motivate to finish.
• Eat Better - Mostly around portion control. When I am running, I don’t put on weight, but when I take a week off, or go on vacation, I blow up. My goal is mostly to become more aware of what and how much I am eating. This is especially important for getting ready for big runs.

Non running related:

• No regular working at home at night - Over the past few months as my responsibilities at work have changed, I’ve spend most nights wrapping things up at home at night. I need to prioritize things better and focus on my schedule at work to stop doing this. It’s a bad habit to fall into even harder to get out of, but it means I deprioritize personal things at night.
• Get rid of cable - 2012, 2013, and 2014 were all the years I was going to finally do it, but this is the year I get rid of cable. I get nothing out of it and it becomes such an easy distraction at home. I need to also be careful that books don’t replace this. The goal is to be more present at home, not find something else to escape into.
• Keep reading at a voracious pace - According to Goodreads, I read 89 books in 2014. That’s fairly evenly split between audiobooks and Kindle. I want to continue at this pace, but focus a bit more on business and non-fiction books so I actually grow while reading. Again, I tend to use these as a TV replacement and escape tool, so need to be more aware of this.
• Keep traveling and exploring - 2014 was a great extension of 2013 as far as traveling and exploring the areas around. We explored the Lower East Side in great detail, and made it to Governor’s Island, Long Island City, and Park Slope for the first time. I want to keep finding new areas and trying new things and food. We also traveled to Seattle, Rhode Island, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the Caribbean. In 2015, I want to keep this up and make sure we take Hershey at least once again. We’re currently thinking San Francisco / Napa, Belfast, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, and Montenegro, and maybe the Finger Lakes with Hershey. If we can get a long weekend to Chicago I think that’d be great too.
• More more present - This is a bit of a higher level goal in a bunch of areas. Getting rid of cable helps with this at home. I need to also stop the phone addiction. This is especially true with friends and family. I tend to get a bit distracted in these settings. I want to focus on being a bigger participant in these and not a passive observer.
• Keep up the writing

So those are my goals for 2015. I can’t wait for running season to get underway. What goals do you have? Anyone doing any good races in 2015?